Checklist for Identifying Deficient Management
A slate or block of rotating
board members or long-standing board of directors;
An entrenched board of
directors;
A “blanket” renewal policy
for association hiring of a third-party vendor management company;
Abuse of proxies, ballots,
and election processes;
An adjourned meeting for the
purpose of conduction and “executive session” fails to re-adjourn and pick up where it left
off;
Allowing attendance of
third-party vendor management company representatives at association board and annual meetings;
Association policies that
promote or result in delay rather than resolution; or policies that force titleholders to waste time and money
with no guarantee of resolution and no viable justification for the wild goose chase;
Association attorney
intervention versus board of directors handling the matter;
Association property that is
unaccounted for;
Association charges, fines,
penalties, or interest that cannot be easily verified by the supposedly “obligated” owner;
Association charges and
invoices lack adequate details to justify and substantiate the amount claimed;
Association books, records,
or documents are in the custody and control of a third party vendor;
Association has no date
custodian(s) in place;
Association has no disaster
recovery procedure in place for electronic or digital equipment;
Association has no document
preservation policy and procedure in place;
Association has no policy or
procedure in place for disposal of obsolete computer equipment and related electronics;
Board of directors that
support a third party vendor and their employees rather than member interests;
Board of directors who fail
to supervise third party vendors;
Board of directors who allow
commingling of association funds or accounts;
Board of directors who fail
to protect the members’ personal identifying information;
Board of directors who enter
into contractual agreements providing that any benefits will inure to third party vendors rather than the
association and its members;
Board of directors that rely
or fall back on ratification of their decisions after the fact rather than performing due diligence prior to
taking a particular action;
Cancelled association board
of director meetings; failure to hold meetings; irregular meetings or decrease in the number of association
board of director meetings;
Early or abrupt adjournment
of association board meetings without cause and failure to reconvene those meetings;
Excessive or unlawful use of
executive sessions without production of minutes;
Excessive liens or
foreclosures (judicial or non-judicial);
Failure to inform all
members, including non-resident members, of association board meetings;
Failure to timely distribute
association board and annual meeting minutes or failure to distribute minutes at all;
Failure to abide by the
Common Interest Development Open Meeting Act;
Frequent change of
association meeting date, time, or place with or without notice;
Frequent changes, amendments,
or rewriting of association governing documents;
Inconsistent, hidden, or
nonexistent notices to members;
Minutes that are not formally
adopted by the board within thirty days of the meeting to which they pertain;
Minutes that are labeled
“draft” remain so or, in the alternative, are branded “unadopted” indefinitely;
Minutes that are kept or
stored electronically or in some other medium and are not readily accessible to board directors and are less
accessible to members;
Minutes are in the possession
and control of management and not the association and its board of directors;
Over-reliance on or excessive
use of association advisors, including attorneys;
Over-spending by the board of
directors;
Perpetual maintenance of
common areas;
Preventing member access to
association books, records, and accounts;
Preventing member access to
the board of directors;
Policies that promote or
result in delays or added expenditures, rather than producing or promoting solutions and providing
answers;
Suspending a member’s
participation rights, voting rights, or use of common area facilities;
Third-party vendor Management
Company employees used as go-betweens or buffers between association members and the board of
directors;
Transfer fee charges for
items such as documents, records, and paperwork in general that should be readily available to owners at no
additional cost;
Transfer fees charges that
are unsubstantiated;
Unresolved member
complaints;
Unsubstantiated increase in
association assessments:
Use of fines, user fees,
penalties, interest, and other financially punitive measures as revenue producers for the
association.
|